10 Tribute

In a location that was part of the grass field, set a three-story abandoned house according to past standards. Its condition, left it in shambles half way up. The appearance was the look of aging wood that was slowly eroding away with time.

Attached to the front of the house that seemed it would fall apart at any moment, was a wooden porch supported by worn down wooden legs. These legs provided gaps under it and made the porch stand even with the four steps needed to climb and reach the area where its front door used to be.

Under this porch, one could hear a melody and singing as the sound grew in intensity the longer it played. However, if one wasn't an Adapter, the only sound coming out was the noise of chirping from crickets.

Not too long in this dark space, a small shadow shot under the porch. It quickly interrupted the flow of the music as silence came over the area. All the crickets who had been enjoying themselves, let their attention center on the commotion.

Resting in the entranceway to the porch was a youth by cricket standards. There on its face was a serene look if one could tell its expression that is. The peaceful look soon turned to excitement.

"Where is Father? I want to tell him that something interesting might happen soon." He chirped. Before any cricket could answer him, there was a loud chirp farther in the dark. "Son you have returned! How was the tempering? Did you manage to evolve?" His father asked.

"Yet not Father. I had to cut my tempering short because I met a few interesting specks in the Green Grass Fields. Three specks in particular even left an impression on me. I wouldn't be surprised if Queen Widow caused another extermination soon." He explained.

"Extermination? Isn't it too soon for her to be raging?" His father asked another question. "Not this time. The three specks I saw hasn't evolved, but I still felt something off about them. Something special. Too special to accept their place in Green Grass Fields. They will definitely want to grow larger." He chirped happily.

...

With the sunlight blazing down in the grass field, everyone near the holy land got ready to depart. Key Stroke kept quiet about his thoughts to have the tribesmen relocate near the Divine Door because of the old man's previous behavior toward the idea.

He guessed after establishing more of a closer bond with the tribe, could he once again bring the idea up. As for the matter that happened the day before, nobody brought it up. It was like a taboo subject. The less said, the better it was for everyone.

Since his goal was to place a foothold by the Divine Door, it was best to find out about the problems that may follow. With this thought, Key Stroke once again began questioning the old man. In fact, it was becoming a pastime from the others point of view.

"Tribe Leader, are there any tribes nearby that also uses the Divine Door for testing?" He questioned. The last time he had asked a similar question, their discussion had gotten off track. This time, he needed this information to better prepare, so he wouldn't allow such a thing to happen again.

"Yes, there are a few speck tribes in Green Grass Field, but there is no point in trying to join forces if that is your goal. Regardless of which tribe you come from, we all still need to pay tribute to the Queen." The old man told him.

"No pardon me since your a Divine Being and our tribe leader, maybe in a ten years time, we can stop paying the Queen." Here, he voice had changed to a little excitement. With the suppression from the queen and the already low number of their tribe, they were slowly dying.

Soon, they would altogether be finished. "The Queen? Is the Queen ruling over the grass field? You also said tribute, you mean like taxes?" Key Stroke asked, shocked that the field of grass they saw had a ruling system.

Why was she allowing people to suffer so much? In such an environment, even if she didn't have the resources to help her people, she could at least try to bring a feeling of unity among the people. In this way, the people would be able to build a stronger society.

Instead, she decided to suck dry a place that was already lacking even more. The old man even had plans to perform a coup because he felt her methods was too harsh. Of course, he couldn't just decide she was evil based off one person's view.

Still, just seeing the state of things, she was definitely questionable. "The Queen is...." The old man was about to explain but stopped in the middle. The reason for this, they had just arrived at the Househill campsite.

Unfortunately, the women and the few men left in the Househill campsite was in a state of chaos. Dirt was overturned and filling the holes in the ground close, the garments made of grass was shredded in pieces, and a majority of the males in camp was injured heavily.

The only one not injured was a male wrapped in webbing while standing in front of the women in the camp. Not surprising, some of the females had grabbed extra weapons left discarded and was trying to use them to defend themselves.

The scene became more shocking than the ruined camp when the thing causing the chaos let out a loud bellow. "Pay tribute to the Queen her majesty! Three specks are to be offered!" It continued to bellow.

Those who could understand the noise it was making was the old man, Black Bourne, Donn Kell, and Key Stroke. Even then, the situation left the returning group stun. Nobody moved to put a stop to the chaos.

Pay tribute? Did that mean the giant bug before them was one of the queen's men? Was she strong enough to subdue giant insects as well? But most importantly before all else. "Is that a talking bug?" Black Bourne voiced the thoughts running through Key Stroke's mind.